


Distractions

by Rhysanoodle



Category: A Court of Thorns and Roses Series - Sarah J. Maas
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Angst, Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-09
Updated: 2019-12-09
Packaged: 2021-02-18 16:29:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21730444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rhysanoodle/pseuds/Rhysanoodle
Summary: My piece for Day 1 of ACOTAR AU Week over on Tumblr: Coffee Shop AU
Relationships: Elain Archeron/Azriel
Comments: 4
Kudos: 65
Collections: ACOTAR AU Week, ACOTAR AU Week Day 1





	Distractions

Azriel had been infatuated with the girl named Elain from afar for two semesters.

Ever since she first walked into Campus Coffee and ordered her overly-sugary holiday drink and he had noticed the soft lines of her face, the magical lilt to her voice as she dictated her order to him, the shimmer in her espresso eyes as she sat joking with her friends.

She thanked him by name every time he handed her a drink, but if it weren’t for the fact that he needed to write her name on the cup, he never would have learned it. She seemed to pay him no more mind than merely as her barista. Which was fine, he continued to tell himself. It was his _job_ , and he wasn’t sure why he had ever dared to dream that she would ever notice him as he blended in with the scenery around him.

He watched her, always from the shadows, as the seasons changed. As she went from studying for finals to celebrating the new semesters by getting back together with her friends and around again in a cycle. She was always evolving, ever changing with the seasons while he sat here, stuck in this dead end job in an attempt to pay for a degree he wasn’t certain how he would use after school.

Azriel knew it was silly, but he’d almost considered quitting, trying to find something— _anything_ —else in a market already saturated with other desperate college students when he’d noticed that she and the mousy-haired jock had finally gotten together. He was the one always playing dumb whenever they studyied together, faking it to get a rise out of her so that they could laugh about it together.

Ugh. How tacky. And now he had to sit through months of them cuddled together on the couch in the corner, him finding inopportune moments to pull her into his lap so that she’d get flustered at him and he could pull her into a kiss. It was all Azriel could do not to punctuate holes in Graysen’s cups from aggressively scribbling his name.

Tonight was different though. Elain had come in all by her lonesome, much later than usual, eyes glazed over and nose red from what could only be crying. Azriel had taken her order all the same, yet it was difficult for him not to ask what was wrong. For all he knew, he was still this faceless man who served her her hazelnut toffee lattes without being given a second thought.

Even as closing time approached, and she showed no desire to move from where she sat rooted in place, gazing at nothing, he couldn’t muster up the courage to force her out those doors. So he just began the process of sweeping up the small bar area and getting the dishwasher running while leaving her in peace.

It was only when he was about to empty the bins that he finally came over to ask her if she was finished with her cup. She handed it over, turning just enough so he could see the tears still actively pooling in her eyes. The moment they locked with his own, she burst out into a melee of tears, which he took as his signal to ask if she was okay.

“How am I supposed to be okay?” she garbled out. “Gray has been seeing Courtney for months behind my back. _Months_. Hell, we were only together for a few months. He’s probably been sleeping with her the whole time. I should’ve known he didn’t need to go home every other weekend for family. It was all about hooking up with his ex.”

She buried her face in her hands, and Azriel, lost for what to do next, took a tentative seat next to her. “It sounds like he wasn’t worth it in the first place,” he supposed cautiously. “At least you found out now, and not like five years in the future.”

“It still hurts just as much, though. I was falling in love with him.”

It broke Azriel’s heart to watch her break down like this. Perhaps he could distract her. “Did you know that coffee beans aren’t even really beans? They’re actually fruit pits.” 

Oh god. It sounded a hundred times worse coming out than it had in his head. He was about to just get up and leave when he heard a soft laugh through the sobs. “Do you have to go to some weird coffee seminar in order to become a barista?”

“No, just someone who likes learning trivia. My mom always had Jeopardy on in the background when I was a kid, and I don’t know. I developed a knack for playing along.”

“Tell me something else.”

“‘Time’ is the most commonly used noun in the English language. God, I sound like a nerd don’t I?” He shook his head.

“No, I like it. You picked all this up from watching TV as a kid?” she asked, the tears flowing slower. Perhaps she’d just needed someone to talk to.

“I mean, I still like to read a lot, and there are tons of fascinating articles out there to explore.” Azriel scratched at the back of his neck hesitantly.

“That’s awesome. I wish I had something cool like that which I was into. I just like photographing flowers, but that’s hard to do in the city. So mostly I just go along with whatever it is my friends want to do.”

“That’s really interesting. You know there’s a campus greenhouse for the botany majors, right? I wonder if you couldn’t find an excuse to get in there. Maybe if you offer to give them fresh photos for their website or something. Just a thought.”

“I like that,” she admitted. “Nobody’s ever actually told me to keep going with this. They think it’s just some silly thing I do when I’m home on weekends.”

“I’d love to see your work sometime,” Azriel offered.

Just like that, Elain seemed to stiffen, realizing where she was and what she was intruding on. “How long ago were you supposed to close?” she asked.

“Forty-five minutes.”

“Oh shit. I’m so sorry. I’ll get out of your hair.” She scrambled to get her things together and ran out the door with barely a goodbye and thanks to him. Much before he could fully insist how he wouldn’t mind if she stayed longer.

The next day, she stumbled up to the counter, still bleary-eyed yet no longer crying and ordered. But this time when she picked up her coffee from him, she demanded, “Tell me another.”

“Another what?”

“Trivia fact. I want to learn what you have in your arsenal.”

He laughed, bringing up a fact which had jumped out at him last night after talking to her. “Did you know that broccoli is actually a flower?”

Her face scrunched up adorably. “Euuugh. Not the kind of flower I’m interested in, Azriel.” But it brought a ghost of a smile to her lips which stayed with Azriel for the rest of the day.

This became their routine. Elain would come in every afternoon and ask him for another fact. He would have carefully picked one each morning in anticipation. Sometimes, she’d even hang around the bar and talk to him about them, if he wasn’t being overloaded.

It was this nice balance between them which he didn’t dare disrupt, but now, getting to know Elain, he was beginning to realize that his superficial infatuation was growing into something more. She was beautiful inside and out and so hilarious in that reserved-sense-of-humor way. He’d watched as she blossomed from dejected recipient of a break-up to a confident friend who kept him company and brightened his days.

It wasn’t a matter of if but when for him to unload this particular fact he’d been saving up for awhile now. But when she came in late one evening, when most of the rest of his customers had already cleared out, he decided to go for it.

She ordered a salted caramel mocha and waited patiently after receiving it, cocking an eyebrow at him when he wasn’t forthcoming with her owed fact of the day.

Azriel’s heart was beating out of his chest as he began his question. “Did you know …” He could easily pivot here. Maybe give her some crazy fact about dolphins or online gaming, but he stood firm. “... that I’ve liked you for a very long time? That I’ve been working out the courage to ask you out for weeks now?”

Those wicked heartbeats between when the words left his lips and her own opened caused an eternity of doubts to flood his mind.

“You know, I think I did have an inkling of that,” she responded, smiling at him, and without missing a beat added. “I have a fun fact of my own for you. Did you know that I’ve started liking you quite a bit as well? Did you know that I’ve been waiting for this moment to happen so that I could say, ‘Yes?’”

“Truly?” Azriel hadn’t dared to hope it would turn out this well, him admitting his feelings for this beauty who was so out of his league.

“Truly.” Elain beamed back at him.


End file.
